SDES2198 Advanced Typography and Publishing Design: ROCKWELL

In 1910 the Inland Type Foundry created the Rockwell typeface. The Inland Type Foundry merged with other companies and formed the American Type Foundries (ATF), and refined the Rockwell typeface in the 1920’s under the direction of Morris Fuller Benton. Benton is known to be one of the great type designers in history, and being chief type designer at ATF, completed 221 typefaces including those such as Franklin Gothic, Broadway, ATF Bodini and numerous others.

In 1934 a company specializing in typesetting and typeface design, The Monotype Corporation, issued a new version of Rockwell. This was during a period when slab serifs were experiencing a revival. The revision of this typeface was under the supervision of Frank Hinman Pierpont, and where slipups took place and Rockwell was instead referred to as Stymie Bold. This has therefore resulted in some speculation over its proper title, still today.

Rockwell lives under the Egyptian, or slab serif, classification, using very heavy, unbracketed serifs that are uniform in thickness with the main strokes of the letters. This makes the typeface design monoline, where thick, block-like geometric serifs are applied to the letterforms. The typeface uses the four weights of light, medium, bold and extra bold, all with matching italic fonts. Condensed and bold condensed variations are also available, however without italics. Rather than leaning towards an oval shape, the particular letters that have closed rounded counters appear to have a more circular form, such as in the g, p, q and even c(which is has an open counter). Half serifs are applied to open countered letters such as m, n, and h.

Rockwell is proportionally spaced, making it nicer and easier to read. This therefore makes the design well suited to professional publishing or printing material that is most appropriately applied in use for advertisements, headlines, posters, logos and short text blocks, rather than in extensive bodies of text. When used in this appropriate text composition, the overall appearance of Rockwell strongly generates a sense of straightforwardness and somewhat integrity.

The multiple font and scale variations of Rockwell in this American Boy Scout graphic poster have been used to their full potential. The characteristics of Rockwell that are strength and boldness perfectly mirror the visual communication given in the image of these three boys. It rightly demonstrates the notion of Rockwell being ideal for short text blocks and headlines.
The uniform, clean and mechanical aesthetic marries in effectively and appropriately with such subject matter as used in this photo for a cover of a technical brochure.
In contrast, the mechanical layout and simplicity of the typeface does not look misplaced or take away from the variety of fabrics shown in this photograph for menswear samples.
The able applications of Rockwell in these contrasting layouts illustrate its power as a graphic communicator, helping the Rockwell typeface sustain its use in publishing material for decades.